Double burial vaults typically provide a concrete enclosure deep enough to hold two caskets in vertically spaced chambers. Typically, particularly in national cemeteries, thousands of such vaults are placed side by side and row after row. Lids are placed on the vaults, and then earth is moved by heavy machinery to cover the vaults.
For the burial of a first body within a vault, the vault is first uncovered by removing the overlying earth and the lid is removed from the vault. This is the second time that the lid of the vault must be manipulated. The first casket is then lowered onto the bottom or floor of the vault. An intermediate floor is then lowered into the vault and seats on an intermediate ledge extending around the inner peripheral walls of the vault at the appropriate height. The lid is then placed back over the vault. At the time of the next interment, the lid is again removed, the second casket is lowered onto the intermediate floor, and the lid is once more placed over the vault. Even without subsequent exhumations, the represents a number of times that the lid must be lifted from and replaced onto the vault.
This arrangement suffers certain disadvantages since each of the lid and the intermediate floor is heavy and bulky. It is sometimes difficult to lower the intermediate floor flat into position in the vault without jamming or binding against the walls of the vault.
It is also difficult to lower the flat concrete floor into the vault, typically requiring two or more workers to lower it by hand.
Sannipoli, Sr., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,030, taught a burial crypt with guide grooves extending from the open end of the crypt toward the floor and terminating at a location corresponding to a desired intermediate floor height. A means was also provided for coupling a removal mechanism to horizontally extending recesses in the crypt lid to assist in the removal of the lid. Unfortunately, the ground in which the burial crypt is placed is invariably subject to subsidence, and the crypt lid and intermediate divider floor often become canted. This phenomenon jams the lid and intermediate floor in place, and makes the subsequent removal of the lid very difficult if a body is to be exhumed, and exhumations are surprisingly common. Further, the horizontally extending recesses formed in the crypt lid become filled with earth which hardens in place, rendering the removal mechanism difficult or impossible to install, rendering the removal tool ineffective. The subsidence underground can also jam the intermediate floor in place, making its removal difficult or impossible.
Thus, there remains a need for crypt closure lid that accounts for subsidence and permits the lid to be easily and safely removed. There is a further need for an intermediate privacy partition that can be as easily removed. The present invention is directed to this shortcoming in the art.